Join Mike Norton for a live discussion.
Every week, Mike Norton goes live to dig into one philosophical topic that would pertain to his literary works.
Fear, fatherhood, legacy, discipline, building something that lasts, and individuating one’s Jungian shadow. Discuss the same things he usually does in his videos, just with you on the livestream in real-time. It is not a lecture. It is a conversation, with you choosing to debate, discuss, or seek Mike’s thoughts, personally.
You do not need to be a regular, a subscriber, or to have even read a single word he has written. If even one of his videos got you thinking, that is enough. Come on, say what you think, ask what you want, and talk it through with him.
A real, live conversation with 100% attention focused on you.
Maybe a clip of his turned up in your feed and something in it stuck with you. Good. A few minutes of video only scratches the surface of what Mike actually thinks about fear, fatherhood, and building a life that lasts. The stream is where he slows down and gets into it for real, with you.
You do not need any backstory to join. You do not need to have read any of his books or watched everything he has made. When you come on, Mike takes the week’s topic and works through it honestly, and in real-time, with your experience next to his.
Showing up with sincerity is the only requirement.
A new topic every week, focused on fundamentals that should matter to men.
Each week, Mike puts one statement on the table and works through both supporting and counter arguments pertaining to it live on stream.
Here are some examples of discussions.
You are not talking to a talking head. Mike served in the US Navy, lived for years in the mountains of China, and has worked, built, and survived across the United States, Europe, and the Alaskan wilderness. The perspective he brings to these streams was earned in the field long before it was ever shared from a podium. Rough and direct in person, yet articulate and wide-ranging, he is the kind of person you actually want on the other side of a hard conversation.
On the Other Side of Fear
Mike gets honest about fear, in the wild, at work, and in our own heads, and how it turns into focus instead of panic. Each week he puts one of these on the table and the room pulls it apart together.
- Fear is not the opposite of courage; fear is the raw material courage is made from.
- Preparedness is fear disciplined into action.
- Survival begins when panic is replaced by procedure.
- The first enemy in a survival situation is not nature, but panic.
- Cold, hunger, darkness, and injury reveal a person more honestly than comfort ever can.
You want to stop pretending you are not afraid and start putting that fear to work.
What We Actually Pass Down
A conversation about what a parent owes a child, and what actually gets inherited once the money is gone. Mike takes statements like these and argues them out with the room, live.
- Wisdom is the highest and most valuable inheritance.
- A father’s highest duty is not to shield his son from danger, but to prepare him to survive without him.
- The deepest form of parental love is preparing your child for the day you are gone.
- A family legacy is not preserved by comfort, but by ordeal.
You are raising someone, or were raised by someone, and you want to talk honestly about what really gets handed down.
The Weight a Man Carries
Not performance, not dominance, but the weight you pick up for the people who cannot carry it. Mike puts the hard claims on the table and tests them against real life.
- Masculinity is not tyrannical dominance over others, but responsibility for what weaker people cannot carry.
- Leadership is proven by the weight a man carries, not the title he claims.
- A good king is the first servant of his house.
- Strength without self-restraint is just volatility with muscles.
- The burden of leadership is the price of moral authority.
You are tired of loud, hollow versions of manhood and want to talk about the real thing.
The War With the False Self
The hardest fight is the one inside. Mike gets into failure, the shadow, and the difference between pain that wrecks you and pain that changes you, starting from statements like these.
- The hardest war is not against nature, enemies, or circumstance, but against the false self.
- Failure becomes useful only when it is metabolized into wisdom.
- A man can fail at one dream and still win as a human being.
- Humility is not weakness; it is accurate self-assessment under pressure.
- The purpose of ordeal is not suffering itself, but transformation.
You have taken a real loss and want to make it mean something instead of just hurting.
Joining the conversation, in three steps.
No experience, no platform, and no perfect take required. Come as you are, just come honest and well-intentioned.
Real talk, not a highlight reel.
Mike is not interested in surface-level motivation. These streams are for people who want to think something through honestly, with someone who has lived a few hard chapters and is willing to be straight about them.
He is measured and direct. He will tell you what he actually thinks (even if it unintentionally angers you or others in the audience), he will listen to what you actually think, and you will both probably grow from the experience.
- US Navy veteran from the GWOT era and two deployments
- Founder of Wolven Industries (home-security & national-defense technology)
- Engineering physicist and technological entrepreneur
- Award-winning marketing strategist who’s served over 200 companies
- Author of Yield and Fighting for Redemption
- Speaker at the University of Latvia
- Decades lived across the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East
- A background built on entrepreneurship, defense technology, storytelling, and leadership under pressure
How others describe the work and the man behind it.
Innovation Impact Forum 2026 was addressed to those who are looking for something more than just formal content events. This forum specifically focused on our understanding and thinking habits regarding innovation, intellectual property, and commercialization.
His life story is like a tragic but inspiring cross between Hamlet and Good Will Hunting.
An exceptional multi-disciplined talent who thrives in adversity.
That kind of conviction from someone of his caliber is not something you hear every day.
About Yield
A survival story on the surface.
A story about what it means to become a man underneath.
Yield follows a father and son into the Alaskan wilderness on a mission that turns into a fight to survive. Beneath the action is a deeper story about fear, courage, discipline, family legacy, and the responsibility of becoming worthy of what you inherit.
You do not need to read it to come on. But if a topic or theme from this book makes you want to go deeper with its writer in real-time, using this page to schedule a meeting with him is the way to do so. Pick it up whenever you are ready, or never, and just come talk.
The kind of people who pull up a chair.
Get a feel for how Mike talks before you come on.
Maybe you have already seen one. Here are a few more so you know the tone going in. Watch a couple, then come join the live version.
Pull up a chair. Come on the stream.
If the week’s question is one you have been turning over too, do not just watch from the sidelines. Tell Mike where to reach you and come talk it through, live.